The Trump administration is investigating foreign gifts to two universities as the federal government continues to crack down on other nations' involvement in U.S. university research — especially China's.

The Education Department sent letters to Georgetown and Texas A&M universities saying it suspects they are not fully reporting the money they are receiving from foreign sources, including China and Qatar. The letters, dated June 13, are set to be published in the Federal Register Friday.

Advertisement

The AP reported earlier that the letters were being sent, prior to their submission to the Federal Register.

The investigation comes amid rising congressional scrutiny of attempts by China and other countries to steal American university research. That has put U.S. colleges — which have sought to push back on the Trump administration's anti-immigrant rhetoric and have long pushed for the open flow of research — in a difficult position.

Some have pushed back, including MIT's president, who warned earlier this week that "in managing these risks, we must take great care not to create a toxic atmosphere of unfounded suspicion and fear."

The investigation letters say the department "believes" that reporting by Georgetown and Texas A&M "may not fully capture all covered gifts, contracts, and/or restricted or conditional gifts or contracts, from or with all foreign sources." It specifically targets information about funds from China, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well as Chinese technology companies Huawei and ZTE.

Morning Education

By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

"Georgetown takes seriously its reporting obligations and provides all information as required by the Department of Education every six months," a Georgetown spokesperson said in a statement. "We are reviewing the letter from the Department of Education and will cooperate with the Department’s inquiry."

Texas A&M said in a statement that “we take compliance and security very seriously" and that school officials "are reviewing it and hope to have this resolved soon.”

The investigation comes after a bipartisan Senate report released earlier this year accused many American colleges of failing to disclose how much money they've received from the Chinese government specifically — which the report says has spent more than $158 million establishing so-called Confucius Institutes at schools in the U.S. since 2006. Many colleges didn't reveal they've accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from China despite Education Department guidance that requires reporting of foreign gifts.

The report urged the Education Department to update guidance requiring schools to report foreign funding, which was last updated in 2004. The Education and Justice departments "should conduct oversight and pursue appropriate action against any U.S. schools that willfully fail to comply with reporting requirements," it said.

Deputy Education Secretary Mick Zais, who signed the letters to Georgetown and Texas A&M, told the Senate panel that produced the report earlier this year that "In the past, every institution we’ve called and reminded of the requirement to report … they’ve responded appropriately."

"We’ve never had an institution that’s just refused to report, which is why we’ve never referred a case to the Justice Department," he said at the time.

Congress, meanwhile, has held numerous hearings on potential attempts to spy on academic research in the U.S. The Pentagon is investigating research partnerships between Chinese firms and American universities, department officials have told Congress. And Republicans in the House and Senate, meanwhile, are pushing legislation that would force the federal government to monitor "sensitive" research projects at universities to guard against spying.